Tips: Care of Pianos

This was sent to me back when I was a student at the University of South Florida's School of Music.  I didn't know some of these tips about caring for pianos...


Dear Music Students,

Four reminders:
1. Please remember to close the lid and the fall-board of the pianos in the practice rooms
2. Always cover the pianos in the Recital Hall and the Rehearsal Halls. If you have to move the piano, make sure it is covered.
3. Do not put anything on top of the concert grand piano located in the Recital Hall backstage area
4. Keep the thermostat at 71-72F - pianos go out of tune if the temperature keeps changing.

Thank you,
Svetozar Ivanov

Claude Debussy gets honoured with Google Doodle

Yesterday, Google honored  Claude Debussy with Google Doodle....To mark 151st anniversary of French composer's birth, an animation is set to Clair de lune, one of his best-known pieces...

Stellar Review on Pianos

I would not hesitate to by a Japanese piano manufactured in Japan... I have seen them age beautifully through rigorous use. 

A digital piano like I have is a wonderful instrument as well, with many advantages.  However, if you can get a good acoustic, get it! 

Repertoire Template

A nicely organized (updated!) repertoire or repertory (can't we just use English? ) is a super inspiration to any student.  He keeps a list of his pieces to refer to on a rainy day, a nostalgic day,  a day when folks are around and ask to hear music, or a day when it just feels nice to play something easy and relaxing.  Those are just some occasions when a repertoire is handy.  It's also useful for students to show new teachers and school/college applications.  Hey, it's even a nice to refer to when teaching.

So here's mine... and, yes, it needs some updating!  It's a nice template, and I'm sure there are others available online.  I only included pieces that I spent a significant time learning, not smaller pieces or ones I just sight read and never bothered polishing.

 I have not listed Sacred, Jazz or Popular music as of yet, but those are other legitimate categories!  I also like to keep a list of my memorized pieces, compositions, and pieces I learned by ear.  All wonderful projects for sometime in the far future, I'm sure. ;)

Gabriela

2009-- Classical Piano Repertoire

B a r o q u e

G.F.Händel:

Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, HWV 67 symphony from "Solomon," transcription for piano solo, arranged by Fabrizio Ferrari.

J.S.Bach:

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, transcription for piano solo.

Two-Part Invention No. 1.

Prelude No. 1.

Prelude and Fugue in C minor

C. P. E. Bach:

Solfeggio.

Pachelbel:

Canon in D, transcription for piano solo.

C l a s s i c a l

Ludwig van Beethoven:

Piano Sonata, opus 13 no. 8 ‘Pathetique” Movements II & III.

Piano Sonata, opus 27 no. 2 “Moonlight” Movements I, II, III.

Fur Elise – WoO56.

Rondo a Cappricchio, Op. 129.

Six Variations (opera La Molinara).

W.A.Mozart:

Piano Sonata in A, K 331"Alla Turca." Movements I, II, III.

Piano Sonata in C, K. 545. Movements I, II, III.

Phantasie in D min. K. 397.

Phantasie in C m

R o m a n t i c

Frédéric Chopin:

Prelude in E minor, opus 28, no. 4

Waltz in Db, opus 64, no. 1 (Minute Waltz)

Polonaise Militaire, opus 40, no. 1

Nocturne in Eb, opus 9, no. 2

E. A. MacDowell:

To a Wild Rose, opus 51, no. 1

Felix Mendelssohn:

Consolation, opus 30, no. 3.

The Venetian Boatman, opus 19, no. 6.

Johann Strauss

Blue Danube Waltz, opus 314.

Franz Liszt:

Etude no. 4 in D minor
Liebestraum, Notturno No. 3.

Franz Lehár:

Waltz (The Merry Widow)

 

Impressionist

Claude Debussy:

Clair de Lune

Duet (edited by Joseph Prostakoff): from the Petite Suite – En Bateau and Cort`ege

 

M o d e r n

Aram Khachaturian:

        Saber Dance from the Gayne Ballet

   

Sergei Rachmaninoff:

        Prelude in C# minor, opus 3, no.2.

       Concerto #2, opus 18, (themes).

Erik Satie:

             Trois Gymnopedies

Jan Sibelius:

          Finlandia

George Gershwin:

Rhapsody in Blue

Ernesto Lecuona:

         Malagueña

Note Flashcards

You can order note flashcards as part of a larger set of music flashcards here.   I've never found a set of just notes, so when you order you get more cards than I teach with.

Or you can make your own and not have the extra.

 I searched "printable music note flashcards."  Below is what I found, click to see larger.  These documents have more notes than I use, so my students can just bring the sheets to lesson, and I'll tell them which to cut out.  

click to see larger

click to see larger

click to see larger

If you want to make your own, trace the computer screen.  I've never done this, so proceed with care! :)

 It's 15 or 16 cards depending on if middle C is repeated in the treble (higher) and bass (lower) staves (plural for staff).  


Both clefs should be visible on each card.

I use card stock - regular paper doesn't flip!  Index card size is great.

Flashcards in lessons:  I assign students six years old and up to learn to identify the note from note flashcards for the middle two octaves of notes, from C to Middle C and up through the next C.  It is preferable to have Mid C with up and down stems, so 2 cards with same note, just stems are different. When they can flip through all 15 - 16  cards in 20 seconds, they advance to playing them.  Then the goal is 25 seconds.


Source: http://www.music-for-music-teachers.com/music-note-flashcards.html

A Noted Story ;)

 
My dear, uproariously funny husband posted this to my facebook. :)

The Truth about Genius - Quotes from Great Composers

Johann Sebastian Bach - "There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself."

Franz Joseph Haydn - "Young people can learn from my example that something can come from nothing. What I have become is the result of my hard efforts."

 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - "Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius."

 Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky - "I sit down to the piano regularly at nine-o'clock in the morning and Mesdames les Muses have learned to be on time for that rendezvous."

Johannes Brahms - "Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind."



Ludwig van Beethoven - "To play without passion is inexcusable!"

 Frederic Chopin - "Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art."

 George Frideric Handel - "Whether I was in my body or out of my body as I wrote it I know not. God knows."

Ludwig van Beethoven - "To play without passion is inexcusable!"


 Frederic Chopin - "Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art."

 Felix Mendelssohn - "Even if, in one or other of them, I had a particular word or words in mind, I would not tell anyone, because the same word means different things to different people. Only the songs say the same thing, arouse the same feeling, in everyone - a feeling that can't be expressed in words."


 Franz Schubert - "Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same."

ALL Music symbols Source Document

Here you go, if you are in a pinch, and have no way other than drawing and taking a picture, you can snip and paste an obscure symbol off of this chart.   Since I like using noteflight.com for typing up music, or at least get a start on there, I have not used this "music symbols source document" yet.

I've played from a lot of sheet music, folks, and I can tell you, about 3/4 of these symbols you'll never encounter! Unless your specialty is modern atonal and avant garde instrumental compositions from obscure academic composers. 

Dealing with Broken Pianos

 
Here are two sites to help: 
http://www.amadeuspianos.com/faq.htm#faq12
 http://www.balaams-ass.com/piano/chap-4.htm


It was neat to read some of the information from these sites.  For example, I never would have guessed that the best pianos were manufactured from 1920 to 1960.  Now, in the last couple of decades, the quality has mounted significantly.  

A peak in the life of a tuner:

Cut out the noise:

I tuned recently in a nice home. The folks there were not noisy because of rebellious teen agers, nor because of fighting New Joisey oldly weds (for noise, they is the woist). This home had a cockatoo that screamed a flat E all the way through the tuning, the lady of the house tried to vacuum the house in C# while I tuned, and the daughter turned on musical cartoons while I was trying to do the treble.

World's Largest Piano

Twice the size of a modern concert grand.
19 feet long.
85% built from recycled materials.

I'm impressed.